Patrick
Depailler

Patrick Depailler was born in Clermont-Ferrand on 9 August 1944. As a child he drew inspiration from Jean Behra. Alongside his Formula One career he raced in Formula Two; at the 1972 Pau Grand Prix he finished 0.9 seconds behind Peter Gethin. That same year Tyrrell gave him two Formula One outings, at the French Grand Prix and at Watkins Glen, where he finished seventh.

For 1974 Tyrrell signed him alongside Jody Scheckter to replace the late François Cevert and the retired Jackie Stewart. At the 1974 Swedish Grand Prix he took pole position and finished second behind Scheckter. In 1976 he ended the world championship in fourth place, his best finish in the standings. That year he finished second behind James Hunt in France and second ahead of Hunt in Japan.

For 1978 he was promoted to Tyrrell's lead driver after Ronnie Peterson left for Lotus. Driving the Tyrrell 008, he won the Monaco Grand Prix for his first Formula One victory and finished the championship in fifth. In 1979 he moved to Ligier. At the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama he led from start to finish for his second win. A leisure accident in June ruled him out for the rest of the season, and Jacky Ickx replaced him. Even so, he finished the year sixth in the championship after seven starts.

In 1980 he drove for the newly formed Alfa Romeo team. At the United States Grand Prix West he qualified third, as the car was quick but could not reliably last to the finish. On 1 August 1980 Depailler died in an accident during private testing at the Hockenheimring, ten days before the German Grand Prix. A chicane was subsequently built into the Ostkurve and was first used in 1982. In total he started 95 races, won two of them, reached the podium 19 times and took one pole position. A radio-controlled car circuit in his home town is named after him.

Source: Wikipedia, “Patrick Depailler”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.